


Pledge

by TheLanternWretch



Category: League of Legends
Genre: One Shot, Spear of Vengeance, bildgewater, lady kalista
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 07:54:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21194219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLanternWretch/pseuds/TheLanternWretch
Summary: A soul for a life - it's just business for Kalista.





	Pledge

**Author's Note:**

> I was given a list of writing prompts from some other writing friends and they challenged me to write some situations or League characters I haven't gotten to explore yet. Kalista taking a mark was one of them. This is just that - short, sweet, simple.

A blond haired woman stumbled toward the open window, her arm stretched out to try and find the one that would hear her plea for justice, for punishment to be handed out to the lady who had wronged her. They were friends, once, but being sold out for money and material objects was enough to ruin that bond. She had never thought that someone like _her_ would take coins for telling men where she’d be, where she’d be the most vulnerable to ambush, to kidnap. She never wanted to be a prostitute but the title and job was forced upon her. She had become intimate, tied up and gagged, with more men than she had ever thought she would be. They were not careful; she suffered from so much pain, from disease, from injury… how she wanted to die. She was broken in both body and spirit. It wouldn’t be long before the illnesses that others had given her would end her life. Every day, the pain only got worse and she felt weaker and weaker.

While others in Bildgewater panicked as a dark fog started to approach on the horizon, the blond reveled in it. She had heard tales of someone who would stand for her when she couldn’t. This was her time to try. “Lady of Vengeance, hear me-“ She started, her tired fingers curling around the window ledge as she looked out over the filthy streets below her. “I have no life left in me. I seek to make a pledge.” The woman watched the mists carefully, nearly leaning out of the window to try and catch a glimpse of something. There was no movement nor anything coming toward the dingy brothel she was holed up in. Disheartened, she turned away from the window only to quickly grasp her heart in shock.

There, standing in the middle of her room, was the ghastly form of a spry woman. The warrior was sickly looking, bones visible through the pale blue spectral flesh depending on how the candles behind her fluttered. She stood, silent, bare feet not even making a dent on the thick throw rug on the floor, though her icy eyes locked onto the poor wench’s as if waiting for an order.

“Are you her?” The woman asked the ghost, cautiously moving forward and supporting herself by holding onto the word rails at the foot of the messy bed. “Are you the one named Kalista?”

The ghost was silent, her gaze unfaltering, as though she were processing information. For a few seconds, there was only the sound the distant screaming as creatures from the Black Mist started to crawl forth and the occasional snap from the bubbling wax on the cheap candle nearby. Finally, the specter spoke, “Yes. We were called Kalista, once.” She took a step forward toward the dying woman, her back straight and her shoulders squared. “Tell me, you wish to make a pledge. State your terms.”

“I am dying, my Lady.” The woman said, her voice weak but determined. “My life was ruined by someone I called my friend for years. She sold me for money to those who have hurt and tormented me.” She explained, Kalista listening carefully to each and every word that was spoken to her. “Her betrayal hurt me more than anything that has been done in the year I’ve been here.” Angrily, she felt a spike of wild energy spring up from her core as tears started spilling from her eyes, mascara and rouge washing down her cheeks. “She doesn’t deserve to live, not after what she did. No remorse, no second thought-“

“We can take care of this betrayer.” Kalista cut her off, her worlds cold and to the point. “Your soul for her life. Do you agree?” The ghost waited for an answer as the lady wiped her cheeks dry. What did she have to lose? Death was coming for her soon, anyway. Might as well die knowing that the one she hated the most, her once friend, would reap the grisly rewards for her misdeeds.

“Tell me, if I say yes, will I get to see it?” She asked Kalista.

“You will be the one to strike her down.”

The woman screwed up her face in determination. “Then I agree. My soul for her life. I pledge myself to you, Lady of Vengeance. _Make her pay.” _

The fallen warrior pulled one of the many spears that were lodged through her torso free. “Pledge accepted.” She reeled her arm back, the weary woman welcoming her end, spreading her arms out and giving her to-be-killer a clear shot. The spear shot through the air, finding its mark and piercing through the newest pledger’s chest. Lodged in the ribs, it stayed, glistening and shimmering as the woman fell back. She was dead before she hit the ground, a smile on her face, her eyes closed in a sign of peace. With a sound like that of a final breath leaving lungs, the woman’s soul was pulled from her body and pulled toward the waiting specter.

Kalista turned toward the window and took a few steps before evaporating into a cloud of inky mist. The hunt began. As she traveled through the darkness to cover the ground of Bildgewater, she listened to the soul she had just scooped up. She was looking for a woman…. About the same age… red hair… brown eyes… birthmarks, 3 of them in a line on her neck… northside of the slaughter docks, more than likely… The ghost rode the mist there, a streak of unearthly blue zipping through the darkness. Finally, she arrived, stepping from the rolling black fog and stopping outside of a sad looking tenant house. The door had been barricaded shut against the Harrowing but it was only wood.

The specter marched up to the door, raised a single leg, and drove her bare heel against the weather-worn timber. It splintered and screaming from within started immediately. She gave it a second kick, this time the door coming off the hinges as it fell. Drawing herself up at full height, Kalista entered the building and peered around. A small family huddled in the corner of the room, crying, begging for her to leave them unharmed. She glanced them over – no, her target was not there. Without a word, she turned away from them and moved to the next room, making quick work of each closed door she found, ramming them open one by one with her shoulder. Her mark was in here… she could feel it. She could tell… people like _her_ were so easy to pick out, to find, to hunt. It was as though she were a bloodhound and their guilt was a scent she was able to track.

The undead stopped outside a door rather suddenly, her head turning to the side with a snap. She was in there. She lowered her shoulder and barged against the door, sending it open and slamming against the wall. Inside, a pretty young red head huddled under a blanket, whimpering, her eyes huge with fear as she saw the ghastly image of a woman step into her sorry excuse for a room. “Go away!” The woman shrieked, her hand fumbling and grabbing a small dagger off her bedside table.

“We’ve come for you, deceiver.” Kalista raised an arm, one clawed finger pointing directly at the woman. She could feel the new soul buzzing with excitement, hissing with hatred, and confirming that Kalista had, indeed, found her target. “You will pay the price for what you have done.”  
“I didn’t do anything!” The woman choked out, pulling her blanket around her tighter, her shaking hand clumsily aiming the small blade. “I don’t know what you’re talking about-“

“Innocent blood is on your hands; the betrayed have cried out for someone to avenge them and I have answered.”

“Who are you even talking about?!” The woman demanded. “I double-crossed nobody, you have the wrong-“ She paused, her mouth agape as the soul that was bobbing near the ghost quickly shimmered into a familiar looking woman, one with a scowl on her face and her blackened eyes showing no remorse or mercy for her once-friend before her. “Lucy? No, no, you don’t understand, they forced me to do that! It was either you or me, what was I supposed to do!?” She choked, tears streaming down her face as the dagger fell from her hands onto the floor below, the metal clanking against the planks loudly. “I had no choice-“

“You had a choice.” Kalista quickly cut her off, her arm stretching backwards. “You chose betrayal over loyalty. There is nothing more to say.” The echo of the woman quickly dissipated, the energy shifting from the form of the dead woman to a long, sharp, deadly spear.

“No, no, please! Don’t- don’t do this, I can make it up to you! I can-“

Whatever she had in mind to do was never known. A single spear was all it took, the blade running the woman through and pinning her to the wall behind her. The lady screamed, clawing at the spectral weapon, her eyes bulging as blood dribbled and foamed from her mouth. Kalista stood and waited, watching with a careful eye until the movements stopped, her target’s head lolling before slumping forward. The spirit straightened up, the spear dissolving into nothing more than a ball of light and returning to the ghost. The corpse hit the floor with a sick and heavy thud.

“Such is the price of betrayal.” The ghost muttered icily. The deal was carried out and the pledge was complete. A soul for a life. She watched as a few ghouls clambered into the room behind her and leapt upon the fresh body. Their little teeth and claws dug into still-warm flesh as they torn the body apart, eager to get at the soul still within the husk. Kalista cared not – she did not want that soul. Not one that belonged to someone like her.

With her orders carried out, the warrior turned and walked past the now-dead tenants of the building and back out into the mist. Another lost soul for the cause, just one more spear for her to use. She returned to the Black Mist, disappearing into the suffocating waves to await the next one who needed her. It wouldn’t be long until she was summoned again, that much she knew.

People never changed.


End file.
